Objectives: The current research examined the impact of peer social norms on the physical risk-taking decisions of elementary-school children.
Method: Children 6-12 years of age completed a novel video-viewing decision task in which they observed risk and non-risk child behaviors on a playground and, after each behavior, indicated their willingness to model each of the behaviors in their own video, both before and after exposure to peer-communicated social norms (encouragement, discouragement).
Results: Exposure to peer social norms resulted in significant changes in risk taking, with changes predicted from ratings of perceived social norms and appraisals of injury vulnerability and severity.
Conclusion: Exposure to peer social norms can provide another means by which injury prevention programs can aim to reduce injury-risk behaviors among school-age children.
Keywords: children; injury; peers; risk taking; social norms.